How to Use Google Drive: Organize and Access Files

9 min

If you are in Google world you seem have anything you need to run your business, communicate with friends, save your personal and confidential files. As the Google cloud will allow you to access and organize your files anywhere, anyplace without an interruption. Google has ample number of promising products to fulfill your needs. Google Mail, Social Network, Google Drive, Google Apps and many more. Initially, Google drive served as storage place where you can store your files on the Google cloud which could be accessed anywhere anyplace.

Later, Google drive has evolved and became a hub which supports the creation of Google docs and allows you to use the office tools as appropriate. In addition, one can extend the functionality of Google drive by installing Google apps. This complete guide to use Google drive would show you how to use Google drive and will help you to get the most out of the drive.

Accessing Google Drive

Step 1: If you have a Google account that would be great, in case if you don’t have account then you should create an “All in One Google Account”. Considering that you already have an account with Google, the first step to access and organize files is to sign in to the Google account.

Step 2: You can access all the features in Google with your Google account, check your mails and if you have any docs that you need to store in Google doc, simply open the file on your account. As Google gone advance, this file will be stored in your drive for further editing and sharing. If you are anxious about uploading and creating a file in Google drive follow these steps.

Click on the drive to enter your drive home page, the Google drive is also accessible from your desktop/laptop. Download the Google drive for PC to sync Google drive with your PC.

Note: Sync is a built-in function and all you have to do is to be connected with internet and leave the technical aspects to Google. May be some organization might have disabled the drive download, if you don’t have the permission to download Google drive for your PC, you can skip it. Google drive on web will give you full access to any file that you manually upload on drive.

Step 3: Uploading/creating a file manually on Google drive

Through Google drive, you can store multiple docs, sheets, slides or any files on to the Google cloud and access them anywhere. If this is your first encounter with goggle drive here is the step to upload and create files with your account. Go to create/upload tab to start using Google cloud from your PC.

Click on the

button on the drive to start uploading your files. The docs, sheets, slides, images or any files can be stored in Google drive.

Select the Files or Folder option to start uploading your documents in Google.

Note: If you wish to upload a folder on Google drive, you need compatible browser like Google chrome. If Google chrome is your default browser then you’d have started uploading the folders.

A pop up will appear in which you have to select the files that has to uploaded on the drive. All those files you upload from your PC will be stored in My Drive Section.

Step 4: Organizing and Accessing the Files on Google Drive

Now that you know how to upload files on Google drive, now you have to organize you files to access them as you wish. You can use the navigation at the left side to organize your files. My drive will contain all those you have uploaded from your computer (as mentioned earlier), Shared with Me is all those files that are shared by your friends, colleagues or others. Starred are the files that you have marked as important and Recent is the files that are shared or uploaded recently.

Google drive will organize all your files initially in a pre-defined manner. You can move the files for better accessibility of your files. Click and drag the files to move to any folders you have created with Google drive.

Step 5: Removing Files from Drive

With the above method, you may know how to organize all your files, folders on drive. As a experiment you’d have uploaded some unnecessary files on to drive, to remove all those files, follow these simple steps to clean up the mess.

Click the check boxes, of the files you want to delete from your drive. If you are using the grid appearance, then check the box that appears when you move your mouse to the document. Select all those files and folders you wish to delete from your drive and Click the Remove button that is available on the top of the page.

Step 6: Search for Files in Google Drive

Once you have started to use Google drive intensely, then your drive will be full of docs, sheets, slides etc. all you have to do is to search for a particular document that you need through the search box that appears at the top of the page.

Enter the file name you want to access and click the search button to find your file/folder.

Google Drive for Mobile

If you want to access your drive through your smart phones, you can download the mobile app that is available in the market place. Download the Google drive for your android or iOS device to access the drive through your tablet or mobile phone. However, your mobile app won’t have all the functions as your browser version would have.

How to Create/Edit Documents Using Google Drive

Since you have uploaded many files as you like on Google drive, the odds won’t be in favor of you all the time. Sometimes you may need to create a file in your office PC or someone else PC which would be your personal or confidential. On that case, you can create the docs, sheets, sliders or any other file using the create button on the top-left of Google drive.

Choose the Type of Document

Google allows you to create docs of your choice; you can choose them in the list. You can also expand the functionality of the Google drive by adding from the Google app (we’ll discuss this in later chapter).

Folder- to create a folder to organize your Google drive.

Documents- open an equivalent of MS Word, which allows you create a word document. You can edit the file through the tools available at the top of the page.

Spread sheet- A blank excel sheet will open and you can export from Ms Excel, PDF or any other formats.

Drawing- allows you do your free hand drawing on the drive and you can download or print the file whenever you want.

Presentation- to create presentation from your Google drive.

Form- you can create forms that ought to be filled in online. The forms can also be exported as CSV files.

Choose the type of file you wish to create and a window will open at that instant providing space to create your file.

Creating Documents, Spread Sheet, Forms and Presentations

If you have decided to work with documents or any other type of files, follow these instructions. Obviously, this would be a piece of cake if you have used Ms Office tools.

Word Document

If you have created a word document in Google drive then it simply like using your Ms Word and you can document all the things you’d like. Similar to the Ms Word, there are multiple tools available to edit, align, format you document.

Spread Sheet

The spread sheet creation would also be simple, you will have spread sheet file on your browser, all you have to do is to fill the content and save them.

Presentation

If you choose presentation, similar to Ms Power Point a window will appear, you can include all the necessary slides on your minds and format the slides with effects and coloring. Select the format of your slides from the Google collection and start editing your presentation.

Drawing

This file will allow you have a free hand drawing on the Google drive. You can also use the tools available to draw images and you print/download them. You can also edit an excising image through drawing tool.

How to save files in Google drive

Once after you have completed the creation of files in Google drive, you have to save files. In addition, you can also share the files with your colleagues, friends etc.

Note: Your changes in the document will be automatically saved on the cloud on the go. Even if you open a document and closed it at the very instant that document will be waiting for moderation on the Google Drive. So all you have to do is to change the name of the file to identify in the mere future.

Double click on the “Untitled document”. A pop up window will appear in your screen.

Click on the Untitled document and enter the file name. Then Click OK, to save the file with the name you prefer on the drive.

Sharing and Downloading the Files from Google Drive

Downloading and sharing files in Google drive is simple, you are only click away from transferring/ sharing things with others. Go to File -> Download as. You can see number of formats in which you can download the file. Select the file extension in which you want to download the file. The file will be downloaded on to your PC.

Sharing files with others is also as simple as opening a document in Google drive. Navigate through the window and at the top right hand side you may see a Share Button. Click the button to share the file with your friends. This could also be accomplished by File -> Share. A pop up will appear and you have to enter the mail id of your friends/ colleagues to share the file with them.

Now that your file will be accessible by the people you have listed. By default you will be the owner of your file, and you can give them rights to edit/modify your file. Click DONE at the bottom when you finished mentioning the people with whom you want to share.

You can also the remove a person, by clicking the X on the right side of their email address.

Reverting Modification in Google Drive

If you’re using the Google drive there is option called Revision which will help you to revert to a older version of your file undoing all the changes that you have made so far from a particular period. This option will allow you to roll back to the files that were saved before.

If you have over done some of the changes and the changes could be saved on the drive instantly. Therefore Google drive has the option to revert the modification you need to roll back. To do this, follow these steps.

select the “See Revision History” option and you’ll see a windows showing the edited dates of the files. You can select the modified date to roll back to the file at that date.

Extending Google drive with Google apps

Now that you have learnt the basic functions in Google drive, it’s time to take it to the advance level. Extend your Google drive with numerous apps available on the Google apps. You can choose a wide range of application to customize your Google drive. Include app that your think that you’d need most.

To do this, follow the instruction given below.

Click on the “More from Apps Market Place”, then your drive will be redirected to a App Market place, where you can find ample number of apps. You can Add the apps to your drive.

Note: You have to pay for some apps, most of them would be free. If you’re organization haven’t given you the permission, then you should leave it as it was. Your administrator have to install the apps in case of necessary.

You can add multiple apps on your Google drive by browsing through the Google apps marketplace.

Select the application you want to save in your Google drive for future use. You can find PDF convertor, Photo editor and many more apps on the market place.

This is the start up in your usage, as long as your are there, you can find more exciting updates from Google for better user experience.

For visual assistance watch this video to have a better understanding of the drive usage.

Make the most of the drive, and store much as possible and access them anywhere, anyplace with Google cloud.

Warning:

Don’t save junk files on drive, the free limit could excluded and you need to pay for further usage. And in case if you need more space from Google, you can pay for using the extended space.

Don’t share you personal files with unknown persons.

Do not download Google drive from unverified stores, you’ve to use the Google store or any other similar resource to enjoy the full benefits of your Google drive.

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